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IIM Udaipur Analytics Excursus

Meliorating the benchmark set by the “E-Commerce Excursus”, the Analytics Excursus was successfully organized on 5th December, 2013 in IIM Udaipur. The Analytics Conclave-2013 is a part of the series of summits planned by the Indian Institute of Management Udaipur, under the banner”Excursus”. Focusing on the importance of extensive data getting generated every day and to take the useful insight from it which can be used for decision making, the theme for the event was decided as “Big Data- Big Advantage”.

The Conclave encompassed a Presentation Challenge and two Panel Discussions. The Presentation Challenge comprised of a competition amongst student teams presenting the importance of Analytics and how well it has benefited the organizations. The panel discussions was a platform for industry leaders to share their expertise through engaging dialogues on two sub-themes within the umbrella theme of “Big data – Big Advantage”.

Panel Discussion 1: Big Data: Opportunities and Challenges

The new era of data presents distinct opportunities for organizations but at a certain cost. In order to be successful one has to understand the major functional areas that attract applications of Big Data. Organizations have challenges varying from acquiring the relevant data to selling this idea in the Indian market.

Mr. Roy Cherian, CEO & Founder of Marketelligent, Mr. Gaurav Vohra, Co-Founder of Jigsaw Academy and Mr. Dripto Mukhopadhyay, Vice President, Indicus Analytics shared their views on the first topic of the day “Big Data: Opportunities and Challenges”. The general view of the panel regarding MBA students and Big Data was that MBAs should be more concerned about the impact this has on the business and should be able to quantify the results.

The opportunities brought about by Big Data have to be transformed into value by transforming the business practices. This technical revolution can be managed only by creating an enabling environment for using Big Data and transforming the internal business processes. Creating sustainable competitive advantage for companies depends on how well they transform the uses of Big Data.

The next discussion witnessed business experts Mr. Ashit Panjwani, Executive Director at SAS Institute, Mr. Amar Saxena, Head of Analytics at RBS and Mr. Rajbir Singh, Global Head – Customer Centric Solutions at HCL. The panel mentioned that analytics deals with business problems and one should view the investment as a business investment and not as tech investment. They also said that one should be very clear with the questions that need to be answered, only then the analytics tools have meaning.

The Analytics Excursus concluded with declaration of results for the presentation challenge competition followed by a vote of thanks. The panel discussion, the student presentations as well as the quality interaction with the industry leaders was an enriching experience for the students of IIM Udaipur.